How rude of me - I should have introduced this lot to you a couple of weeks ago, but well, you know how it is! Anyway Here they are - God help them! Check out all the strange things that make them who they are here......
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Clever, clever girls.......
I have had two pieces of great news this term from some "old girls" who are both doing rather well. I am always so touched when they think I am important enough to share their fortune with.
Firstly I found an exciting parcel in my pigeon hole at work - it was a copy of House & Garden magazine, some fabric samples and a very charming handwritten note.... It was from a lovely girl called Katherine Pool or, naf-kaf as she was always known when she was at Alton! In a nutshell, post graduation from Leeds College of Art she has secured a position at Fermoie (the people who brought us Farrow & Ball), and is quite a hit - as she was always destined to be! House & Garden saw fit to publish an editorial on the company and there is a great deal of emphasis on how instrumental her input is - BRILLIANT! You can read the whole article here.... http://www.fermoie.com/press/4
Katherine in action!
Rosie Stride left us more recently and coincidently continues to study at Leeds - they must be good there - she "Facebooked" me to let me know that she has just received the wallpaper history society award in the CAMAC student wallpaper design competition.
Well done Rosie!
Happy Birthday!
I would like to ask you all to join me and offer some hearty birthday wishes to my washing machine - yes, really, it is now 30 years old and still going strong!
Zanussi, I salute you!
Round up of last few summer projects
With one thing and another I have been kept away from my blog over the last week or so, mainly because I have been pretty busy with personal statements & summer project marking - although I am still waiting on quite a bit of this to still come in - arrgghh, naughty boys and girls - yeah, you know who you are.... I have been squeezing in some last minute own work in prep for the winter selling season which also consumes my time whole, and irritatingly, our phone line (and therefore internet connection) disappeared. Finally in the shock of a the flick of a switch, Alton college has become a much poorer place and has taken its toll - this I will sadly explain in a later post.
So here are some last minute things, and now it's down to the nitty gritty of the autumn term - see you on the other side!
At last! The stools got their freak on!
Some more cushions were born.
I made the bunting I had been commissioned to make - and they LOVED IT apparently (thank goodness)!
The tea towels got ironed and folded.
Some new books got made (and sold already).
All those cushions got put together.
Let the selling commence (please)!
Another thing I did was spend some time with my new nephew - grandma reads a mean story too!
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
La vie en swiss
I always like to do a last minute.com thing before my return to college and it normally involves my friend Bex, this is the first year I have visited her whilst she has lived in Switzerland, Basel to be precise. We have been mates now for 20+ years - since uni, which makes me feel so very old, although we both maintain that we still feel exactly the same. I am always rather surprised when I consider just how old 41 is. But I suppose that 41 now is a lot younger than it was when are Mums were our age - for a start they both had kids that were practically 20 and that's bound to age you! Neither of us have even managed to catch that particular bandwagon let alone jump on it. But whilst we are still youngish without "family tie's" it's quite nice to hang out in the city, do a bit of culture and drink far too much prosecco!
So I arrived at sunset, this year it was nice to have an uneventful flight, last year the storm I travelled through to get to Bex was so bad I though I might die.....
Window boxes are a big deal in Basel - not many gardens I guess!
Don't know who did this or what it is, but I saw it in a window - much more attractive than the chap below who was also hanging out behind glass, creepy.
I discovered the department store Globus - it is a bit like Selfridges I suppose, but well, even better. I am a total sucker for food packaging and its presentation - you can forget the fashion bit - just take me to the food hall!
Bex, always one to enjoy the chocolate!
Some of the home ware stuff is quite interesting too!
Had to bring some nice bits home.....
And some ribbons for me.
How sweet is this little chap? I would never be able to leave him tied up outside any shop no matter how fab it is!
Talking about dogs this is Gilbert - he isn't so keen on walking.....
A highlight of this trip though, aside from just chilling and spending time with a very dear friend, was a trip to the Beyeler Foundation to see the Jeff Koons exhibit - well worth a look, and the person who sold me a ticket based on my fake student card actually believed I was 29 (you have to be under 30 to be a student in Basel), so that was a bonus!
And then it was time to come home and go back to work.....
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
In awe
Oscar Pistorius is my new crush, simple as that. I have enjoyed every second of the paralympics and will always be inspired by what I have seen. I know that we are supposed to be in awe, especially given the "super human" status that these athletes have been awarded by our popular media, but well, it's an apt description isn't it? Never again will I just roll over (ah, O.K. I never have, but I'm making a point) when one of my students says "I can't", well, yes you can, because if there is one thing that we have learnt this summer, it is that if you put your mind to it, you bloody well can. Being without a limb(s) must be devastating, but using determination and damn good design takes those obstacles out of the way - not great at drawing, but still want to be able to express yourself creatively? Well, you find another way don't you, it might be with a silk screen, a camera or a computer - the point is, it doesn't make what you do any less valuable, you have still used your imagination and stepped up, put yourself out there, if you like, just as running on blades doesn't make your athletic talent any less impressive. Life moves on, and at an incredible pace it would seem, gone are the days (thank God) when a "less" able bodied person was kept low profile and relatively static, as are those when your creative endeavours only meant something if you picked up a palette or a pencil.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Nicely bronzed!
CONGRATULATIONS LIVVY!
Yep, she has done it! Got a medal, pretty good for someone who has only been part of the paralympic team for only matter of months! As the first runner to go in the 4x100 relay Livvy showed us just what she is made of - Ivan (Mr Bicknell) and I were on our feet screaming at the telly like a pair of mad things! Today she competes for the individual 200m (T38), having already reached the final of the individual 100m and ultimately coming 5th! So we are keeping everything crossed...... we have both agreed that Livvy is a very good excuse for a trip to Rio in 2016!
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